Checking the class list

The girls were so excited to go check the class list and see what teacher they got for this year and also who would be in their classes.They both go brand new teachers this year. I am not sure how I feel about that. I feel like the principle put them in the new classes because we won't be here all year. Hopefully they are better than last year's first year teachers. I know every teacher has to start some where, but I am just hoping is a good situation for my girls. I have had heard good things about them, so I hope that holds true. And if not I guess it doesn't matter much because we are moving to Brazil at some point this year. 

 Gretta is with her best friend Maren Barfuss which she is excited about. 

Eliza didn't do as well with having girls she knows already in her class, but she does have her friend, Kyle, from preschool last year. 

ps. We were headed to the beach.

Moving to brazil

So I guess it's not unusual for Brazilians to come to the US to shop. NPR even did a whole story on it. (See the link)  Here is what our kitchen looks like these days with all of the stuff we are buying to take with us. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/08/14/211737003/brazilians-flood-to-u-s-on-massive-shopping-sprees

Rides at the Berrien County Youth Fair

I took the girls and our friend Wayne to the fair. Gretta got in free because she put two exhibits in the fair. Her ice cream ceramic and ceramic pot she made at art class. She got a blue ribbon and a red ribbon she was very excited. 

So we went on Thursday, which wasn't fee kid day, to go on the rides. The kids rode rides from 11:00- 1:30 non stop. Then we took Carli home and Eric came home to work from home while she napped, so we could go back from 2:00-5:00. We really got our money's worth out of the wrist bands. Plus we went back with Eric later that night, so Eliza could go on some of the rides that required her to have an adult. 

Gretta is crazy! She loves all of the big kid scary rides. Eliza is much more cautious.

Berrien County Youth Fair with Grandma

Gretta put two pottery pieces she made this year in the fair, so on Tuesday night we went to check out how they did and show Grandma Linda the Berrien County Youth Fair. The girls enjoyed seeing the horses and animals and Gretta also got to participate in the Pirate Island show. It was a fun night. 

Silver Beach Pizza

A trip to St. Joe is never complete without dinner at Silver Beach Pizza and a carousel ride. Too bad I didn't get a picture of Grandma too. We had a fun night. 

Mackinac Island

Since moving to Michigan I have heard a lot about Mackinac Island, and it has been on my list of "Must See" places in Michigan. For our Anniversary Eric and were able to go and stay in the Grand Hotel. It's the hotel that, "Somewhere in Time" was filmed. 

First we stopped at Mackinac City to see the old fort and light house. I read the girls a book about the lighthouse this summer during summer reading, so it was fun to see. And of course to take some pictures of the "Mighty Mac" as the bridge is called. It's still the longest bridge North America. It is 5 miles long. It's pretty impressive. 

Then we drove up to Saulte Sainte Marie. We have heard about the "Soo" from the missionaries. It is the most northern point of the Lansing, MI Mission and the missionaries say you don't want to get sent to the Soo for the winter! I guess it's pretty cold and dark during the winter. We went and saw the Soo Locks. They were super impressive. We were able to see a big tanker come and through the lock. 

We also found where the church meets. It must be a small branch because they only have a suite in an office building. 

Then we went back to St. Ignace and spent the night. They have fireworks every Saturday night long the bay that over looks Lake Huron. It was a nice fireworks show. 

Sunday morning we got up and boarded the ferry for Mackinac Island. We were able to go under the bridge which was cool. You could also see the Grand Hotel from the boat.
The island doesn't have any cars on it except for one ambulance. It is funny to see all of the luggage being pulled to the hotel by horses. 

We took the carriage tour of the island. Then we walked around downtown a bit and then we biked around the island. It's an 8 mile bike ride around the island.
The Governor of Michigan has a summer home on the Island and it's beautiful. 

Then we checked into the hotel and went swimming. The swimming pool was a warm 85 degrees which as you can see from my fleece that it wasn't really warm outside. The pool was awesome. They even had free snow cones and Eric liked jumping off the snake. 

Our room was the Versailles Suite and we were next to the "Somewhere in Time" Suite. 

The hotel has a dress code and after 6:30 the men must be in suit coats and ties and women in skirts or dresses. We dressed and went down to dinner. I felt like I was on a cruise ship. We had a nice 5 course dinner followed by after dinner entertainment by a harp player and then dancing. 

Sunday had another lovely breakfast in the dinning room, played croquet on the lawn and then headed for home. We got on the ferry just in time for a huge down pour. I guess we picked a great time to leave. 

It was also funny to see the delivery trucks on a ferry to make their delivery. 

We sure had a great time. 

Thanks so much Linda for watching the girls!!!!